Posted onOctober 8, 2016|Comments Off on 2016 Pea Growing Season Comes To An End

Sales of pea shellers has slowed to a crawl. That means our websites will now concentrate on nut picker uppers and nutcrackers. Even as I say that, we are actively preparing for next summer by ordering parts for the PoBoy Pea Sheller.

I ran the heck out of the PoBoy test models we had. It’s about as perfect as I can make it. I’m so proud of the the adjustable rollers and the Gripit & Ripit system.

It shelled butter beans like a champ! Butter beans are so hard to shell by hand, so to see how perfectly it ran through those was an, “Oh yeah!” moment.

Of course purple hull wasn’t a problem. It was rather boring to after the first bushel or two of perfectly shelled peas. It’s not a lot of fun going through piles of hulls looking for non-existent mashed peas.

The PoBoy didn’t do so well on zipper peas. They were rather difficult to get through the roller openings. I couldn’t get the rollers to open wide enough. The gears are this small of a unit are not big enough to separate that far.

This time of year I talk to a lot of people about pea shellers and corn creamers. Older people keep telling me how younger people don’t care about gardening anymore.

When I was a kid I watched a black and white 1950’s movie with Humphrey Bogart talking about how lazy young people are. I think I’ve seen five or six dozen movies since extol that same thing.

I say all this because young people are buying corn creamers. They’re buying pea shellers and other gardening equipment. They’re interested in the latest canning techniques.

Maybe the reasons are different, but the results are the same. Many people today are worried about GMO, and pesticides, and where food comes from. The news is full of recalls from China and other countries.